🔥 Chessnut Air Electronic Chess Set Review: Is It Worth Your Money?

#chess #chessnutair
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This is a review of the Chessnut Air Electronic Chess Set. This is not a sponsored video. I bought this device with my own money privately, and the manufacturer was not involved in the review in any way.
00:00 Introduction
00:37 The board and the pieces
02:08 Turning on the board
03:00 Playing a game on chess.com
06:22 Chessnut website and accessories
08:19 Overall impression

[@jayr7770]

Just purchased this second hand off someone who's bought the chessnut Evo. It's great, a great size with good quality pieces. I've got full size tournament sets with quadruple weighted pieces and at no time did I feel it was too small or that the pieces where in any way inferior. It's a Goldilocks set, not too big or too small. The user interface is also great.

[@chessnoob64]

That's great 😃

[@johnjohansson217]

Ok… just bought one😂. Thanks for the info! 😊

[@chessnoob64]

I hope you enjoy!

[@heuw7379]

good explained, thanks

[@chessnoob64]

Glad it was helpful!

[@GlassOfWater87]

very cool looking gadget there. It sort of adds another dimension to playing online chess. Another step closer to playing actual chess with actual people IRL :D

[@chessnoob64]

Absolutely. This does move towards that direction! Unfortunately, it's challenging to play chess IRL in Sydney as there are few clubs and most have limited sessions. Thanks for the comment ☺️

[@lotharen]

Great video! helped me make my mind up to order one. I have a question about your video though. How did you get your phone screen to appear in the video like that? (its a nice touch)

[@chessnoob64]

No worries! I'm glad you liked the video and I'm sure you'll have a great time with the Chessnut Air. Regarding the video, Samsung includes a very good game/screen capture recorder on their phones. I had this running on the phone during the set up and the game, which was recorded using a separate camera. I later edited in this screen capture footage when creating the video, and synced it so that video from difference sources lined up.

[@lotharen]

@@chessnoob64 I didn't even know that was a thing! I have a Samsung as well. Might have to give that a try once I get my Chessnut Air.

[@TheRealMafoo]

Thanks for the review. A few questions. The first is do you ever get any disconnects from the app when playing online? And also, just out of curiosity, when the knight took your bishop, and then you took the knight, could you have done that in one move, or were you required to place the knight down for it to register, before you placed your queen there?

[@chessnoob64]

No worries - thanks for the questions! I've never had a disconnect. So far (for me), the BT connection between the board and my phone (an old Samsung Galaxy S8) has been rock solid and I've played perhaps around a couple dozen games. In terms of the connection to chess.com live game, I think how the app works makes it resistant to these issues. The app doesn't run a proprietary client that accesses the chess.com backend. Rather, it seems to simply load the chess.com website directly on a custom browser instance, and uses this to read the positions on the screen, and then replicates this on the e-board. This means that you could literally close the app and then load it back up, and as long as it hasn't been too long and chess.com ends the game as "abandoned", it'll straight up load straight back into the last live active game and it'll continue to work. This is just like if you play chess.com normally through a browser and you temporaily lose network access. With regards to your second question - yes, you can do this in one move. To explain, the live game and the logic occurs on chess.com and the app and e-board simply replicates and transmits piece positions backwards and forwards. The lights on the board actually indicate where the physical pieces on the e-board are inconsistent with the pieces as per the game according to the chess.com window on the app. So after an opponent moves or captures one of your pieces, the pieces on the board are now different from the live information on chess.com - these are indicated by the lights and these turn off when you move the pieces such that the position is replicated. If you move one of your pieces on YOUR turn to a legal square, then chess.com will interpret this as the next move. This means that you don't necessarily need to "register" every single move sequentially for it to work. Simply, your next move just needs to be interpretable by chess.com as a legal move. That's a lot of words but basically, where your opponent captures and you immeidately capture back with another piece, you just need to remove the captured pieces and place the right piece in the correct final position. I've done this plenty of times.

[@TheRealMafoo]

@@chessnoob64 This is awesome. Thanks. I am so close to preordering the pro version of the board! I am pretty excited about it!

[@jeraldmcgowin4162]

at 4:36 you tipped over a piece, if I did that on my Squareoff Rollable chess board it has a fit.

[@karenhuang3905]

Thanks for the review! Found your video when researching for an e-board. I received an email about the Chessnut EVO. Early bird price is $459 US dollars. I saw you posted a EVO open box video. In your opinion, is it worth it to spend additional $259 for the EVO (given the Air is only $200)?

[@chessnoob64]

I think this will depend on what your use case is. The Air is extremely good value at its price and works best for playing online random games on chess.com and Lichess. If that is the only planned use, then the Air will probably be the better product to buy.

[@jeraldmcgowin4162]

The chess smart boards how do these relate/compare to Chessup ect.

[@richardormsby1435]

Hello, good review, thank you. Two questions, please (1) can you set up a position and tell the board which side is to make the next move? (2) Let's say you just want to study a position, Can you take back a move and "see what would have happened if," etc?

[@chessnoob64]

Yes, and yes. This very much depends on the app that you use with the board. Chessnut's own app is very rudimentary, but you can connect it with chess.com (for instance), and then use the analysis board function on their site, along with playing against the computer from a position, and take back moves. I'm fairly sure you can do this with some of the third party Android apps that work with the board (e.g., ChessPGN and ChessDojo).

[@stevenbombardieri4702]

Thanks for the review. Just ordered it today. Was there any extra cost for custom tax in Australia?

[@chessnoob64]

I don't think so (at least, I didn't have to pay any last year).

[@stevenbombardieri4702]

@@chessnoob64thank you. no worries. It was on their website in shipping information. Maybe some countries have to.

[@Jakobmu]

Hey there! Great video, just one question: How big are the pieces? I've been searching for it all over google, but i cant seem to find any info on the sizes. I've been in the market for e-boards for a while now, but im worried that the air is too small.

[@chessnoob64]

The king height is 68 mm / 2.7 inches. It is appropriate for a board with 35 mm sized squares (effectively, an analysis sized board).

[@gokselkabaroglu2946]

Thanks👍👍👍👍

[@chessnoob64]

No worries!

[@gaminggeeker6896]

Great review. Since this is the cheapest eboard that doesn’t look like a machine from the 80’ I am thinking about buying it. I just have one question…. I heard you can play with bots. How do you do that and are the bots any good in terms of realistic moves?

[@chessnoob64]

In terms of bots, I suggest playing the range of chess.com bots using the board. Bots are never that realistic, if the metric is the "humaness" of the moves, but they can nonetheless be fun. In this review, I connect to one of the chess.com bots to demonstrate the board. Here's another video where I complete an entire game with a bot: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pIerh3-JbtJ-g5I

[@adriangutierrez2670]

Hi! It was mentioned in another review video that it does NOT include extra queens for promotion purposes but at 02:01 I think I can see a pair of white queens. So, does it include an extra queen for promotion? Thanks in advance

[@chessnoob64]

It includes extra queens. All retail Chessnut boards include two queens of each colour. The prototype EVO board I received did not include the extra queens but the retail sets will.

[@7wayzenst204]

Hello thanks for the information I juste have some questions : can you play when the board is in charge Now with your experience does the board still work well? Thanks for your answer!

[@chessnoob64]

Yes, you can play with the board while it is charging. Yes, the board still works well for me!

[@lennymuller671]

Hi! Great review. I have a few questions regarding the OTB playability as its quite a small board. I'm playing OTB with a friend daily, and we've reached a point where we'd love have a Analysis of the game afterwards. This is really the primary function I'm looking for. All the other options like playing against others etc. are nice to have. Would you recommend me this board for that purpose or do you have other ideas I should check out? kind regrds

[@chessnoob64]

To be honest, if the primary purpose is to have a record of the game and analysis, it might be better to simply record the game on a move sheet. The board is relatively small for regular OTB play with another person, and the two of you might well prefer playing games on a larger board with weighted pieces.

[@lennymuller671]

@@chessnoob64 thanks for the reply! We actually thought about that but recording all the moves and then manually putting it into some sort of Analysis software doesn’t sound all that inviting. I did actually go ahead and purchased the board and we’ll see how it goes. The new Square Off Boards or the Pro Chessnut would’ve most likely been better options, but well they aren’t available yet :/. If you have any other board recommendations i’d happily take them :)

[@jacksontran5469]

@@lennymuller671 How is playing OBT with the analysis function been for you? I bought a SquareOff Pro, which is tournament sized. It worked well for that purpose but there are other small glitches that have made the experience not as good overall for online. I may end up exchanging it with the Chessnut air even though I enjoy the larger tournament size

[@lennymuller671]

@@jacksontran5469 honestly- works great for me! Admittedly, I used to play on a Board gifted to me years ago which apparently is rather small since the Chessnut Air is about the same size, so what works for me might not work for you as I never had a bigger board. But, I personally can’t see why the board size of the Chessnut Air would be a problem for OTB playability. Additionally, everything said in this video is true, it works flawlessly and the pieces have a nice weight/feel to them.

[@JuliusBjornsson]

@@jacksontran5469 I like playing OTB with this board, but very soon (within weeks) they are shipping out the Chessnut Pro, which has the same features but is tournament size and all wooden. I’m really looking forward to that one 😊

[@UnrealTournament420]

This board is life changing ❤

[@chessnoob64]

😁

[@jameswest785]

Great video, I’ve just ordered one. Once the game has been started, can you switch the phone screen off or does it have to remain on?

[@chessnoob64]

I'm actually not sure. The intended use case is for the phone screen to remain on for online live games as there is often useful information (e.g., respective clocks, whether the opponent has offerred a draw, etc.), so I've never tried turning off the screen in that situation. I imagine the app might continue to run with the screen off, but it is possible that power-saving routines on a phone might interrupt the connection.

[@jameswest785]

@@chessnoob64 thank you for the quick reply. That makes sense. I was considering a situation where I have the board set up and left on and a longer time game like 1 day / move in progress, I could play my move and then come back a little later and see the opponents move shown with the LEDs on the board. Kind of like correspondence chess.

[@chessnoob64]

@@jameswest785 Okay. I think you might be able to make it work, but pretty much the mobile device will need to be connected to the board over days - both will need to be plugged in as one or both will have their batteries go flat. To be honest, I don't think the device was made with this use in mind.

[@smashingamin]

Hi! Just Curious, is this the ChessNut Air travel sized board or full sized? Thanks! Also, is this compatible with PC?

[@chessnoob64]

The Chessnut Air is an analysis sized board, which could be seen as more "travel friendly", it is smaller than a full sized tournament board. Yes, it can be connected to a Windows PC.

[@wat331]

I have recently order the chessnut based also about your review, but my question is about the timing of shipping, because I am reading that are some delays for who have bought the chessboard. What is your experience about this ? thanks a lot

[@chessnoob64]

Hi. I purchased it in October or November 2022 and it took less than 14 days to receive in Sydney, Australia. That's pretty normal for parcels from the Eastern Seaboard of China to Australia. I think Chessnut might have their production in Shenzhen? I imagine that there will be some delays at the moment as China has a massive outbreak of COVID-19. I believe that their manufacturing and logistics are likely to be affected significantly, probably for a few weeks. It's probably best to contact the Chessnut company via their Facebook page, or Discord. They seem to be reasonably responsive there.

[@wat331]

@@chessnoob64 Many thanks for your reply... Yes I read that they have warehouses also in Germany, and I'm from Italy, but thanks for let me know about your experience. Because reading some comments I had the suspiciuos that like Square Off products waiting the products could be longer

[@cevain]

So if you use this OTB in person, do you think you can use the app as your time clock without having an actual chess clock?

[@chessnoob64]

I've never tried it, but I don't think it is intended for this purpose and I'm not sure that this function exists in the Chessnut App. When playing OTB in person, the board is designed to work autonomously (i.e., not connected to anything) and will save the moves into internal memory. This can be downloaded afterwards. If you have a smartphone that will be next to the board (I'm going to assume Android), I would just download one of the excellent chess clock apps available. This one is good: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chess.clock

[@TheSirCal]

Do you have any thoughts on this board vs square off pro?

[@chessnoob64]

Square Off Pro has a non rigid board as a feature. If you need the portability, that might be a pro, but otherwise, it's a con as it won't feel as nice to play, and won't be as reliable. It also has plastic rather than wood pieces.

[@ajvalv]

Is it possible to undo a move? I usually use that option in lichess when playing with my sister who is learning...

[@chessnoob64]

Yes, but you'll have to interact with the screen. Basically, request undoing a move like normal.

[@davidelliot8898]

Maybe an overly simplistic question. Was wondering how the chessnut app levels compare to stockfish elo levels? Thanks

[@chessnoob64]

No idea actually. To be frank, I don't use the Chessnut App to play a bot. I would either use chess.com's bots, or a bot from one of the compatible third party apps.

[@gumtree7177]

Hi 👋🏻 have you tested if you use a foil silver sticker will real wood pieces work ? Please test and let me and all know. Thanks

[@chessnoob64]

No, this will not work. If I'm not mistaken, the Chessnut Air probably uses an RFID like system so that each pieces can be uniquely identified (so, for instance, the board knows that it is specifically a "black knight" rather than any other piece). This is different to the DGT Centaur and Pegasus which uses a simple induction system that detects a "piece", but cannot identify the pieces individually.

[@gumtree7177]

@@chessnoob64 thanks for the reply

[@geekconnoisseur]

Can it play against computer offline also or just when connected to one of the platforms?

[@chessnoob64]

Hi! The board doesn't have an internal chess computer, so it does need to be connected to something that can operate the board, if you want to play against a bot. The board can operate by itself, offline and without it being connected to a companion device, if you wanted to play an OTB match with another person, and have the board record the game. If you want to play a bot, you will need to connect the board to a companion device (e.g., phone or tablet) via Bluetooth LE that has an appropriate app. However, your phone/tablet can be offline - it doesn't need to be connected to the internet to work.

[@bobbyvandam74]

Just got my board and I noticed that some squares will have the LED lit while it shouldn't be lit depending on the position of the other pieces. It is very dim but nonetheless noticable when playing in a low light environment. I'm trying to find out if I have a faulty board or if all boards have this due to the way the electronics was designed.

[@chessnoob64]

There might be some slight leakage of current / induction resulting in the "off" LEDs being minimally lit. I think that I've noticed this occasionally as well - as you say, in a low light environment. In practice, I've not noticed this to be a problem.

[@bobbyvandam74]

@@chessnoob64 Thank you for your reply and confirming you have seen it as well. I do have another question if you don't mind. I only have charged it a couple of times but I noticed that after it switched off after being a moment on the

[@chessnoob64]

@@bobbyvandam74 - to be honest, I haven't seen that behaviour. Usually when it gets to low battery (blinking red) during a game, I can get at least a couple more games out of the device. I usually would charge it before it powers off.

[@bobbyvandam74]

@@chessnoob64 Thanks for letting me know. Maybe it will get more accurate after some more charge cycles.

[@games5fun]

Piece recognition and speed are perfect .. but the board is really small and as you may notice.. it is common to hit other pieces when you try to move because the board and the pieces are very small .. also .. the dots on the board (lead places) is a bit annoying for the eyes .. I wonder why they didn't try to hide it or make it less visible.

[@chessnoob64]

Great comments, and I agree. The board is smaller than what I prefer, but I think that it's a compromise. This is probably as large as the board can be while remaining "portable". As mentioned, this is really about the size of an analysis board and it is okay for a single live player (thus, versus online opponent is perfect). I don't think that this would be pleasant to play OTB with another person as the board is too small. With regards to the dots/lights, they are okay. My main criticism is that they can be obscured by the pieces themselves occasionally. A better design would have been LEDs at the square corners. An even better design would have been to use the method in the DGT Centaur board with a light ring that illuminates under the board surface.

[@2Vanilla]

is there a board that has magnets so it could move the pieces out of the way and put them where there supposed to go

[@chessnoob64]

Square Off is the only company that makes electronic chess boards with self moving pieces. The Square Off Grand Kingdom has been released for a while and you can find reviews on KZbin. It suffers from the problem that the chess pieces auto move rather slowly, and on your turn, you have to do a special push down on the piece to register the move when you pick it up. There are also some queries about the reliability of the board. Square Off has claimed to produced a second generation product, the Square Off Neo and the Square Off Swap. I've personally purchased one, but be warned, it has not arrived. I bought it originally in May 2022 and the ETA has kept slipping. The last communication in November 2022 was that the ETA is now March 2023! It seems that Square Off hasn't fulfilled orders of the product from 2021 so at this point, it might as well be vapourware.

[@2Vanilla]

@@chessnoob64 so your saying I should just make it myself

[@JERRYR708]

Ordered one during Cyber Monday sale for 169.00 out the door. Thanks for the great review.

[@chessnoob64]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@JERRYR708]

​@chessnoob64 I placed the order on Monday, and it is already out for delivery today, Wednesday. WOW!

[@Murat807]

Did you take it apart and check the battery replacement possibilities for the future?

[@chessnoob64]

Thanks for the comment. No, I didn't open it up.

[@AznDumbum]

@@chessnoob64 Does it look there is a possible to replace the battery?

[@chessnoob64]

@@AznDumbum I haven't personally opened up my Chessnut Air (and have no intention to), so this comment is based simply on what I could find online. Photos of the internals of the device are available in this technical document here: fccid.io/2A3RB-CA100/Internal-Photos/Internal-photos-5561653 This shows that the battery is a fairly typical lithium polymer cell so it shouldn't be difficult to replace if needed, though I imagine you will need to feel comfortable with using a soldering iron.

[@seanobrien2306]

Hi, Adventures of a Chess Nobb..., One question: #1) "Could you do a (comparison) of the Chessnut Air Electronic and the ChessUp AI Electronic (fully lighted chess squares ) Computer chessboards ?" I hope so... " Semper Fi " Mike in Montana :)

[@chessnoob64]

Thanks for the question. I don't own the ChessUp board so unfortunately, this is not likely to be something on the horizon. Cheers.

[@jeraldmcgowin4162]

This is far and away superior to the Rollable Chess board from squareoff

[@jeraldmcgowin4162]

How does this compare to Chessup?

[@chessnoob64]

I don't own a ChessUp board so can't compare directly.

[@jeraldmcgowin4162]

thank you for your reply@@chessnoob64

[@leatangerine]

Hey there We're working on launching an automated chess robot and we'd love to get your input to make it the best it can be! We're particularly interested in hearing from potential users like you about what features you'd like to see and what you think would be a fair price. Just to give you some context, we're a team within a leading AI company in Asia, focused on developing chess robots. We've already introduced two successful board game products that combine top-notch AI technology with robotic arms. They've been a hit in China for the past 2 years, finding their way into tens of thousands of households. Reply if you are up for a chat about it!

[@chessnoob64]

Sure, that sounds very interesting. It'll be best to contact me by email.

[@leatangerine]

@@chessnoob64 Sure, just sent my aply to get your email

[@leatangerine]

@@chessnoob64 Just sent!

[@Neptune8]

Every time I think about products like this , the logical side of me asks the question “if you’re using this for practice and bot/online play AND you still have to move pieces on your own , why not just use a standard board and your phone?” , it’s a basic question that my wallet would like to remind me of.

[@chessnoob64]

The answer is pretty obvious... You don't have to enter moves on your device. 😅. And it's cool. 👍

[@Neptune8]

@@chessnoob64 I will agree , it is definitely cool. That’s why I have it sitting in my cart on Amazon right now lol 😂

[@chessnoob64]

@@Neptune8 😂

[@phenanrithe]

hmm, it's well hidden on their website, but I think it needs a smartphone, which is very annoying (and silly)

[@chessnoob64]

😑 It's hardly "hidden". The device needs to be used with a companion device (phone, tablet, computer) if you want to use it online. if you want to record an OTB game, it does not need a companion device.

[@z_dan]

I really fail to see the advantage to have an expensive board as opposed to a regular dummy board. You have to move your pieces yourself after looking at the led on the board, you might as well look at the app on your phone and move the piece this way and save all the money and get a bigger board.

[@chessnoob64]

The advantage is pretty obvious isn't it? You don't have to tap on a device screen to make moves.

[@KillerofGods]

I do this on slower games but I am going to get one of these. It's very annoying when I sometimes forget to move an opponents piece and I blunder an exchange because they had an extra defender I didn't even see on my board. This would keep that from happening, especially if I were to play faster paced games

[@stevegleds]

I'm interested in buying this to record OTB games against real opposition

[@charleswebsterjr.6350]

​@@stevegledsit's definitely good in training for OTB .